War Girl Anna (War Girls Book 3)

by Marion Kummerow

  “Does the professor know?” Anna asked.

  “No. He may not be a Nazi by conviction, but he would never go against them. He knows that would be the end of his career, and he values his status too much.”

  A pang of guilt hit Anna’s stomach. Same here.

  Peter took her face into his hands and pressed a sweet kiss on her lips. “Can you forgive me for pulling the wool over your eyes?”

  “Perhaps,” she said. He didn’t have to know that she’d already forgiven him. Trust was a tricky issue, and she would have done the same thing in his shoes.

  “Sweetest Anna, believe me, I wanted to tell you so many times, but…you seemed so enthralled with the glamor and adulation of the Nazis, I wasn’t sure where your loyalties actually lay.”

  Anna laughed sharply saying, “That’s because we don’t know much about each other.”

  “I would like to change that. Can you forgive me and give me a second chance?” Peter pressed another kiss on her cheek, and Anna’s mind went blissfully blank. She grabbed his shoulders like a drowning woman, and soaked up his calming presence.

  “If you promise to keep no more secrets,” she answered.

  “Promise.” He grinned and took her mouth in a passionate kiss. Anna felt as if she were floating on cloud nine, and soon enough he scooped her up into his arms and carried her over to the bedroom. She leaned her head against his broad chest, and giggled as he settled her carefully on the bed.

  “Wait!” She shot up and searched his face as if seeing him for the first time.

  “What is it, sweetheart?”

  “I don’t even know your real name! How can I do this if I don’t even know who you are?” Anna whispered.

  “I’m the man who loves you. That’s who I am.” Peter chuckled. “My real name is Piotr Zdanek. I am a member of the Polish Army, a member of the British Army, and currently acting as a spy for both.”

  Anna slung her arms around his neck and pushed back so hard he lost his balance and toppled on top of her. When he placed little kisses down her neck and her collarbone, she moaned with delight. But the moment he pushed his hands beneath her blouse, she sucked in a breath and clenched her hands by her sides as the old fears tried to surface.

  “Are you afraid of me?” Peter, sensing her sudden tension, stopped kissing his way across her jawline and looked deep into her eyes.

  “Not of you, but I am afraid,” Anna whispered. She knew she should tell him the secret she’d been hiding, but she wasn’t that brave.

  “Do you want me to stop? We can wait,” Peter said.

  “No. I have waited so long. I want to stop being afraid. Please help me.”

  Peter kissed her again and then unbuttoned her blouse. “Are you sure about this?”

  Anna nodded, seeking the love in his eyes. “I’m positive. Show me that being with you is as wonderful as I’ve imagined.”

  Chapter 25

  Anna and Peter emerged from the bedroom to scour her kitchen for food. While Anna fixed them something to eat, Peter set the table and asked about her day at work.

  “Exhausting,” she answered, not keen on delving deeper into the topic.

  “Professor Scherer seemed concerned about you today. What happened?” Of course Peter had noticed she was trying to evade the topic.

  “You remember what I told you about the medical experiments?” Anna said, unable to face Peter.

  “I do,” he said with a low voice.

  Anna stirred the soup with increased violence, saying, “He has put me in charge. I am supposed to devise the new experiments that will be carried out using not only the children, but also prisoners at nearby camps.” She stopped stirring and turned around, shooting daggers at him as if he were the evil person in the situation. “He doesn’t care how much these people suffer or how many die in the process!”

  “But you do?” Peter said.

  “How can I not? The children may be retarded, but they are still human and feel pain…how can I be the instrument of their torture and death?”

  “You discussed your concerns with Professor Scherer?” Peter stood and closed the distance between them.

  Anna nodded and then changed it to a shrug saying, “Kind of. I told him I wasn’t comfortable using the vaccines until we had more evidence that they work. He said only a woman could be so weak. And then he threatened my job and the recommendation for my sis…friend if I didn’t obey his orders.”

  “What did you do?” Peter wrapped his arms around her.

  “I agreed. What else was I to do? But I don’t know if I can go through with it,” she said, leaning into him and taking the pot from the stove. “Our soup is ready.”

  “Anna, one thing I’ve learned throughout this war…there is always a third option. It might not be visible right now, but it’s there. You have to look for it.”

  “Do you really believe this?” Anna asked, a glimmer of hope breaking through the darkness that enveloped her life.

  “I know for sure. Look for it…it’s there. And now let’s eat. I’m starving.”

  “Who isn’t these days?” she answered and poured the majority of the soup into his bowl.

  “I love you, sweetheart. No more secrets,” he said, wolfing down the meal. Anna blushed and focused on her spoon. But trust went both ways, right?

  “There’s something else I have to tell you,” she said and put down her spoon with a clinking sound

  “More bad news?” He glanced at her with worry.

  “No, just more secrets.” Anna smiled and told him about her dead sister Lotte, who was well, alive, and lived now under the name of Alexandra, needing the professor’s recommendation for her radio assistant training and her plan to work as a spy.

  Peter laughed. “Looks like your sister and I will soon be colleagues. I would love to meet her one day.”

  Once they finished their meal, Anna asked him to stay overnight and soon she slept in the secure embrace of his arms.

  The next morning after kissing Peter goodbye, she loped to the laboratories. Anna could sense something was amiss, but she didn’t recognize it on first sight.

  But as she entered the lecture hall she saw workers systematically disassembling the secretarial offices. Metal desks, chairs, and even office equipment encased in metal were being removed and loaded into trucks.

  She hurried to the laboratory, where she found a colleague standing in the doorway, watching with a long face, and she asked him, “What’s going on?”

  “The order came in this morning that all things made of metal have to be turned over to the war effort. There’s not enough metal to continue making tanks and weapons.”

  “They’re taking everything metal, even from hospitals?” Anna asked, incredulous.

  “No, hospitals are exempt. But this building is only clerical, so it has to comply.” The colleague left to try and salvage at least the metals they needed for their research work.

  Anna looked after him, thinking about how everyone would have to find materials to substitute for the metal they were turning over. Substitutes! There’s always a third option. Thank you, Peter.

  She yelped with joy and rushed off to set her plan in motion. After taking a walk down to the storeroom to grab several IV bags of saline solution, she diligently prepared the syringes for today’s experiments.

  When Professor Scherer dropped by to discuss the progress, she showed him her notes and her plans on how to complement the lab experiments with tests on humans, and handed him the syringes with a smile. She had no idea how long she could get away with giving the test patients nothing but saline water injections before she was found out, but it would buy her time to find another solution.

  Chapter 26

  Professor Scherer received the Kriegsverdienstkreuz for his outstanding merits in the war effort. The Cross of Merit was the highest award a civilian could receive. To honor the work of his research team, he invited the entire staff to a small celebration in the auditorium.

  Anna
sneaked into the room after everyone else, because she’d wanted to finish her calculations. Professor Scherer had almost finished his acceptance speech, thanking everyone on the team.

  “…will assume the professorship in internal medicine by the end of this month. Please welcome him to our team.” The position had been vacant for a few months and as far as Anna knew there had been a number of applicants.

  She weaved her way through the crowd to congratulate Professor Scherer, and give the new professor a warm welcome. But she froze in her tracks, and felt the blood drain from her face when she recognized the man standing beside Professor Scherer.

  Professor Scherer noticed her before she could slip back into the crowd and motioned her forward saying, “Doctor Tretter, you remember Fräulein Klausen? She’s my head of bacterial research, and may I say she’s one of the best students I’ve ever had.”

  “Nurse Anna. It’s a pleasure to see you again.” Doctor Tretter shook her hand with a repugnant smile.

  Anna’s knees became soft as jelly, and the bile rose in her throat as she stared at his hand grasping hers. The image of sticking a knife deep into his hand brought some relief, and she found the strength to breathe again. She withdrew her hand and turned towards the professor saying, “Congratulations for being awarded the Cross of Merit.”

  “Thank you, Fräulein Klausen, but I could not have had this success without my team.”

  She smiled and stepped aside to let others congratulate him. But Doctor Tretter wouldn’t let her go that easily. He followed her and grabbed her arm, leering at her. “It’s been a while. I’ve missed the fun we had together. I look forward to catching up.”

  Anna curled her hands into fists, fear moving like molasses through her veins, as the memories of his past torment assailed her. She shook her head and backed away, her eyes wide with terror and her heart missing a beat or two.

  When she hit the wall, she put a hand out to ward him off. “St…stay…away from…me.”

  “Oh, I don’t see that happening. Do you? You haven’t forgotten that it takes only one word from me to have you executed?”

  Anna couldn’t move. Panic held her rigid with an iron grip and paralyzed her body. When she didn’t answer, he continued, “Perhaps you should give me a tour of the facility. I’m sure we can find an unused room for a few minutes.”

  She blinked, hoping he’d disappear. But this wasn’t one of her harrowing nightmares; it was T the devil in the flesh. Anna knew without a shadow of doubt if she gave into his demands today, he would control her forever. She wouldn’t survive if he raped her again. No, she couldn’t allow that to happen.

  “Anna, here you are,” Peter said, appearing out of nowhere, registering the situation with a single glance. “I need to talk to you.” Then he sent a menacing stare at Doctor Tretter, who showed no intention of letting her go. “Please excuse us.”

  Anna ducked around Doctor Tretter, ignoring his threatening glance, and made straight for Peter, who ushered her into the hallway grinding his jaw. “What was that all about? Are you alright?”

  “I am now, thanks to you.” Anna sent him a small smile. This wasn’t the place or time to reveal her secret, so she said, “Walk me back to my laboratory?”

  “You’re not staying for the celebration?” Peter asked.

  Anna shook her head. “I already congratulated the professor and I have several experiments going that need my attention now.”

  “I’ll walk you over.” He took her hand and they walked in silence, the ghost of Doctor Tretter hovering between them. Anna knew she should tell Peter, but right now she was too agitated to hold a conversation.

  She leaned against Peter and kissed him. “You should get back to the celebration, or the professor will be wondering about your whereabouts.”

  “I’d rather stay…”

  “Peter, we both have our work to do and I can take care of myself,” she said, although she wasn’t sure if she could. Not if T the devil showed up again.

  “I’ll kill him if he ever touches you again,” Peter growled, and by the look in his eyes she knew it wasn’t an empty threat.

  “He won’t.” Anna exuded a confidence she didn’t have, and turned to walk into the vacant laboratory with a queasy feeling in her stomach. But she couldn’t let Peter get involved in this. His situation was dangerous enough as it was; he didn’t need the added risk of dealing with someone as perfidious as Doctor Tretter.

  A half an hour later her hopes were dashed when Doctor Tretter walked into her laboratory space. Since he didn’t shut the door, Anna was sure he merely wanted to intimidate and scare her into compliance. But that didn’t make him less harrowing.

  “What do you want?” she asked with all the strength she could muster, grateful for the laboratory table full of glass and potentially dangerous solutions physically separating them.

  He smirked and lowered his voice to a menacing growl: “I wanted to make sure you knew that I won’t have you sleeping with another man. If you have any thoughts of giving that lousy scum what is mine, I promise you will both regret your betrayal.” Then he turned on his heel and left.

  Anna clasped the edge of the table to prevent her knees from buckling. She’d been afraid before, but now, she was petrified. By the time Anna finished her tasks, she had worked herself into a full-blown panic.

  Afraid to be alone, she went straight to Peter’s place. He greeted her with a huge smile, but after one glance at her face, he pulled her into his arms and carried her to the armchair, where he held her until she stopped shaking.

  After a long while, Peter spoke, “Sweetheart, it breaks my heart to see you terrified like this. Please let me help. Tell me what’s going on.”

  She nodded and hid her face against his chest, inhaling his unique scent, gathering the courage to come clean. “That man…he was the head physician in Ravensbrück. He’s a horrible man – no, man is too kind a word. He’s a monster. The things he’s done…”

  “Shush. He can’t hurt you here.” Peter stroked his hand across her hair like her mother had done when she was a little child.

  “But he can. He’s threatened to have me executed if I don’t do what he wants.” Anna broke out in sobs, wetting his shirt with her tears.

  “I must have missed something. Start from the beginning. Why does this man think he can have you executed? What is it he thinks you’ve done?”

  “He knows I’ve done it. He was there.” She took a deep breath and then told him the details of the story how Ursula and she had rescued their sister Lotte.

  “Clever girl,” Peter murmured in approval and then he asked the question Anna dreaded to answer, “What did he want?”

  Her entire body tensed and trembled as memories of that day came rushing back, and she couldn’t form a word if her life depended on it. Peter muttered a few Polish curses and rubbed his hands up and down her back in a soothing gesture. “Don’t answer that. I get the picture. He’s the one who raped you?”

  “How did you know?” Anna whispered, afraid to look at him.

  “I’m not stupid, Anna. I could tell that someone had abused you, but I didn’t want to add to your distress by asking questions. I figured you would talk about it when you were ready.”

  New tears flooded her face and she threw herself into his arms. Peter simply held her while she cried. For herself. For Lotte. For his other victims, the Króliki, human guinea pigs, at Ravensbrück who’d had to endure the most excruciating medical experiments at his hands. When she had no more tears to cry, she lay against Peter’s chest, his shirt soaked with her tears, and said, “He’s promised to continue where he left off.”

  “Over my dead body,” Peter growled, squeezing her fiercely against his chest.

  “But…but…what can I do? What can you do?”

  “For now, nothing. But trust me, I’ll cut off not only his hands should he ever reach out to touch you again.”

  “You can’t do that!” Anna pushed away from him to look into his
scornful blue eyes. “The Gestapo would happily make minced meat out of you. There’s no way I’m going to allow you to do this for me!”

  Peter chuckled and pressed a kiss on her cheek. “That’s why I love you so much, because you’re such an undaunted young lady.”

  “Peter, I’m serious…”

  “And I’m serious too. What kind of man would I be if I didn’t protect the woman I love?”

  Chapter 27

  The next day Anna paid a visit to Mutter and Ursula. She caught one of the infrequent busses, and crossed the devastated city. Since she lived in the staff housing, she rarely left the Charité grounds and had forgotten how god-awful the situation in Berlin was.

  At long last the incessant air raids had stopped, as if the Allies had decided there was nothing left worth bombing in the capital. According to the radio, the Allies were now focusing their air raids over France. Speculation had it the Allies were planning an invasion somewhere on the French Atlantic coast. Damaging infrastructure was their preparation for crippling the German defenses.

  Anna had never spent much time thinking about what would happen when the war ended. Despite the constant rallying to persist, most of her colleagues doubted that Germany would win this war. Not after the Americans poured millions and millions of dollars, material, and soldiers into this craziness. And even the Russians, who had been one step from defeat when Hitler’s army stormed Moscow in the fall of 1941, had recovered and regrouped and were now annihilating division after division of the German Wehrmacht.

  Most everyone wanted the war to end, but looking at the devastation the bus passed, it dawned on Anna that it wouldn’t be the magical return to glory that everyone expected. Not for a long time. The winners would be so full of hatred and repulsion for the German people – more so when they found out about the things happening in the camps – that Anna feared they might kill all of them, like they had razed the cities and towns across Germany.